Nuu Mobile G3 Smartphone Review

The G3 is a brand new handset that comes straight out of the Chinese manufacturer G3. And taking a look at their other handsets, the G series is definitely their best looking offering. It looks very similar to a Samsung phone, around the S7 – S8 era. It’s priced at £199 on the Nuu Mobile website, which is understandable as it carries some pretty budget specifications.

The Nuu Mobile G3 feels pretty weighty compared to the handsets coming out of Samsung, Google and Apple of late. It’s covered in glass, with the back being coated in this blue shimmering type pattern which actually looks quite stunning when you catch it in light. Very similar to that of the Huawei Mate 20 Pro or Sony XZ3.

On the right hand side you can find your lock button and volume rocker, while on the bottom is a USB Type-C which is refreshing to see on a budget handset. No headphone jack though so you’re relying on a dongle for wired headphones. The phone is nice to hold, with enough grip to manoeuvre your fingers to the side buttons, though it is a bit of a fingerprint magnet thanks to its glass back.

Battery isn’t too bad on this device. I’m a pretty heavy user due to my job and having to be on social media a heck of a lot. I have to charge my phone by late afternoon, but I’m talking about a lot of video consumption as well as photo editing on Snapseed. Moderate use you can easily stretch the battery out a day.

The strangest thing about the charger is the fact that it has some kind of electrical hum when the phone is plugged into it. Tried it in a couple of sockets but the same thing happened. It’s not so noticeable during the day, but it certainly is a distraction when you’re trying to sleep.

Inside you can find a MediaTek Helio P25 which isn’t the fastest mobile processor on the market by any means, but with the 4GB of RAM it means running your favourite social media apps is possible. Don’t get your hopes up with many demanding games, butt the 4GB of RAM makes multitasking a breeze. There’s 64GB of on-board storage, with the chance to up it with a 128GB microSD card. There’s a dual-sim card slot too for two networks. Battery life also clocks in at around 10 – 11 hours.

The screen has a resolution of 1440 x 720 and a pixel density of 283. This basically means the screen is by no means sharp. But it’s bright, which counteracts some of the blurriness you may experience. Also, there are noticeable sharp edges in the corners of the screen which is a far cry from the smooth edges of a device like the Samsung S8, which this phone failed to effectively rip off. The panel isn’t exactly exemplary, colours are a little lacking and it gives off this kind of cool effect which isn’t great.

The camera is also sub-par, for a phone with a dual snapper on the back. The main cam has a 13 megapixel sensor with a secondary 5 megapixel sensor. There’s a f/2.0 aperture which can deal with some level of bokeh in portrait shots, but don’t get your hopes up, the effect isn’t that great. The camera really struggles to nail exposure, often rendering shots near unusable because the phone believes the image needs to be brighter than it actually should be. Autofocus is very hit an miss too, especially on a video of a moving subject. Constant focus hunts again can make shots unusable, which I experienced when shooting an Instagram story under studio lighting.

But then again, some shots can come out looking semi-decent. I know. Mind blowing. The inconsistency of this camera isn’t good, especially if you’re timing up a perfect shot. It’s hit or miss on whether you’ll actually get a decent photo.

Android is also a tricky one. Kudos to Nuu Mobile for keeping as close to stock Android as possible although is a little outdated with running Android 7 rather than the more up-to-date Android 8.0 Oreo. Most preinstalled apps are a part of Google’s infrastructure which is nice to see as well.

With all its faults, the Nuu Mobile G3 isn’t a bad phone when it comes to performance and the build quality isn’t bad. Battery life is decent as well as the spec for multitasking and the camera I would have to say is exceptionally underwhelming. It’s extras like a lack of a headphone jack or the corners of the screen that have some pretty knarly sharp edges. And when there are phones out there like the Motorola G5 or Honor 7X, it makes it very hard to recommend this as your next budget handset. For more information on the Nuu Mobile G3 phone then you can head on over to their website.